President, as pastors, should lead by example

By Curtis L. Eidson, pastor, Emerald Baptist Church, Greenwood

Published June 5, 2006

Any pastor who becomes a candidate for the position of president of our Southern Baptist Convention should be a man who leads his church by example, especially in supporting our Cooperative Program. I am in no way saying that Dr. Ronnie Floyd is not a man of example or the highest integrity; it's just interesting, now that we know the kind of support the Cooperative Program receives from his church. Giving less than 1 percent is not leading by example.

Many lesser known pastors of smaller churches throughout South Carolina work extremely hard to lead their churches in understanding the importance as well as the benefit of giving as much as we can to the Cooperative Program. And now we have a man who is a candidate for president of our Convention — and, let's not forget, a pastor with a budget in excess of 12 million dollars and whose church gives less than $35,000 to the Cooperative Program. That's not setting the proper example that the president of our Convention should demonstrate.

At this point in time I believe strongly that it would be beneficial for Dr. Floyd to remove his name from consideration to be our next president and allow Dr. Frank Page to be elected without opposition.

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